A SUSSEX COUNTY BIDEN JAMBOREE

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

There were about 400 people who came out Saturday for
the Sussex County Democratic Beach Jamboree, a staple of
the political calendar held every year at Cape Henlopen
State Park, but it seemed as if only one in the crowd
was unwilling to talk about who would be the party's
2006 candidate for attorney general.

The conspicuous silence bellowed like a bullhorn from
the candidate-in-waiting himself. Joseph R. "Beau" Biden
III stuck to the script that no one believes. He was
there to picnic, not politick.

Never mind he was working the tables under the
pavilion like someone who was prepping to run against
Attorney General M. Jane Brady, the three-term
Republican who got her start in statewide politics as
fodder for Beau Biden's father, when U.S. Sen. Joseph R.
Biden Jr. went for his fourth term in 1990.

"I'm here like I've always been. I've been here since
I was a little kid. This is a family affair for the
Bidens," Beau Biden said.

It was that. Led by the senator, the Biden contingent
numbered more than a dozen, including Joe's wife Jill,
sons Beau and Hunter with their wives and children,
daughter Ashley and staff members.

The Bidens eclipsed other officeholders who made the
jamboree a showing of politicians bringing their own
babies to kiss. Assorted Democratic up-and-comers
emulated the Biden family outing, much as they dream of
emulating the senator's career.

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who is going home to Milford
when her second term ends in 2009, sat alone.

There was a light buzz in the crowd that maybe Beau
Biden would take advantage of the jamboree to declare
his intentions, but it was never more than wishful
thinking. It was a cinch that Beau and Joe would not put
themselves in a position of upstaging one another, and
the jamboree customarily turns out to be an event that
belongs to Joe.

The state park itself has an environmental education
building named the Biden Center, which says it all, and
the Sussex Democrats always give Joe Biden the last
speech, the prime spot in the program. The governor
opens, and the senator closes.

Still, the expectations for Beau Biden were not about
to be ignored. Carney saw to it when he had his chance
to speak. "Do you think Beau Biden would make a great
candidate for attorney general?" he teased. "Go up to
him and say, 'Beau, you gotta do it.'"

Carney was in a playful mood, period. He latched onto
the longest running joke in Delaware politics, the line
that the lieutenant governor is in charge of the
weather. First he took credit for the pleasant evening,
and then he said that U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper was
missing the jamboree because he had gone to Florida for
a Boy Scout outing and got stranded there by Hurricane
Katrina.

"Thank God I'm not in charge of weather down there in
Florida, where the lieutenant governor is" -- Carney
paused dramatically -- "a Republican!"

Actually, the officeholders all seemed to be upbeat
with the jamboree coming the day after the reprieve for
the Delaware Air National Guard. The mood contributed to
the ease with which the Democrats once again put off
taking sides in the 2008 gubernatorial competition
between Carney and Markell. Carney won his second term
in 2004, and Markell will be running for his third in
2006.

"Jack will do for the next election. Then we'll go
from there. Both of them have a lot of support," said
state Senate President Pro Tem Thurman G. Adams Jr., a
Bridgeville Democrat considered the voice of Sussex
County.

Anyway, there was no need to be stressed about 2008
while the party was enjoying the prospect of a potential
presidential candidacy for Joe Biden. His speech was a
rehearsal of campaign themes.

While the other speakers wrestled with a
fuzzy-sounding microphone, Biden jumped atop a picnic
table and delivered from there. He spoke mostly about
Iraq, insisting the U.S. still can prevail but
predicting the end would come by late 2006, one way or
another, either because Iraq was a stable nation or
because that opportunity was squandered and lost.

"We're going to be out of there by the end of 2006,"
Biden said. "We may end up out of there the wrong way."

While he spoke, his grandchildren kicked around a
soccer ball. No one is a prophet in his home, not even
Joe Biden, not even at an event he owns.